Ahh, werewolves. Call me a supernatural nutter, but they come
only second to vamps. I can still
remember the intensity of waiting for Oz to turn on ‘Buffy’, back in my early
teens. I can also remember the first
time I watched ‘Ginger Snaps’ – an absolute gem, if you haven’t seen it. Werewolves definitely at their best in that
one. Of course there have been a few
stinkers over the years; it comes with the genre. Cursed, Underworld, The Wolfman, and we’ll
pretend we never saw Jacob change into a Husky in Twilight. Just sayin’…
Forgive my ranting,
I’ll go back to where I was heading. So
for years Dad has been raving about ‘An American Werewolf in London’, made in
1981 by John Landis. Actually, it pleases
me a lot to know he wrote and directed this movie – you can definitely see the
love a director has for a movie when they not only build the story but then get
the chance to put it into motion. There
have been numerous articles I have read that mention this film and so, alas, it
was time for me to check it out. I know
I deserve a good slapping for not discovering it earlier, but potato-patata.
The story is centered
around two American backpackers (college students, who’dve thunk it?) who end
up at some backwoods dodgy pub somewhere in England. Apart from pissing off the locals, they are
warned as they are leaving to stay on the road and not go near the moors. But as the fog begins to surround them as
they walk, they venture off the road and end up, whaddya know, on the moors. Random growling ensues and the two guys run
away from the unknown creature making the noises. David falls over, Jack helps him up and
subsequently ends up being attacked when trying to help his mate. David discovers Jack is well and truly dead –
a bloody, torn-to-shreds remnant of his former friend. At that moment, he is bitten and scratched by
the wolf, who is shot by the crazy pub locals; just in time, right?
The remainder of the
movie is based on David’s downward spiral into becoming a werewolf. He constantly hallucinates (?) Jack’s rotting
corpse talking to him. Their dialogue is
quite humorous – gotta love it when David calls Jack a ‘walking meatloaf’. There’s a whole lot of strange, quasi-funny
creepiness throughout the entire movie.
Semi-werewolf Nazis, the two girls who laugh when the dog is barking at
David, not to mention the soundtrack. I
actually think the music is what makes the film so successful. ‘Blue Moon’ plays right at the end of the
movie when David is transforming into a werewolf for the first time; it almost
seems peaceful, serene. And as somebody
once said to me, Credence will never be the same.
Give this movie a
really good look; it was awesome. For
the price of a rental you can pick it up at JB Hi-fi, and it is well worth
adding to your collection. Watch it with
your tongue in your cheek and your middle finger raised firmly at your Twilight
DVD (come on, we all own at least one of them).
Enjoy!!
P.S.// And for Pete’s
sake, don’t even think about watching ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’… just
saying…
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